Posted on Monday, July 25, 2016

Piya Sorcar, a lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education (GSE) and an adjunct affiliate at its School of Medicine, has been named the youngest winner of the university’s 2016 Alumni Excellence in Education Award.

The Stanford Graduate School of Education Alumni Excellence in Education Award was established in 2014 to annually honour three former GSE students transforming the field of education and elevating the promise of education for children, families and nations. Sorcar, also the founder-CEO of TeachAIDS, has been recognised this year for turning her work as a graduate student into a global platform that uses educational technology to improve learning about public health.

“Spun out of Stanford University in 2009, and recognised as an innovation that would ‘change the world’ by MIT Technology Review, TeachAIDS is a social venture that creates software to solve persistent problems in HIV prevention around the world. Based on more than five years of research, we developed a process to teach about HIV prevention which is simple and yet accurate. The research and testing has revealed ways in which we could simplify biology-based concepts and use culturally appropriate graphics to communicate complex ideas around HIV transmission,” says Sorcar.

The animated prevention material is available as interactive software as well as in video format. Interactive software versions allow users to interact with the computer programme so their questions are answered directly. The interactive animated software is used to teach students in high schools and colleges by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and non-profits throughout the country. More than 100,000 CDs were distributed in India over the last few months. Besides, the animations are used by Indian corporations to educate staff and community members. Twenty-two Indian celebrities have lent their voices and likenesses in the animation to engage children. TeachAIDS has produced 14 animations in seven languages. For each language, there is male and female animated software.

Born in Colorado, Sorcar has roots in West Bengal and has been living in California for the last 13 years. She completed three undergraduate degrees at the University of Colorado at Boulder --- a BS in information technology, a BS in journalism & mass communication, and a BA in economics, summa cum laude. She received an MA in education and a PhD in learning sciences and technology design from Stanford. In 2011, MIT Technology Review named her in its TR35 list of the top 35 innovators in the world under 35.

On how she became interested in this field, Sorcar shares, “My parents immersed my younger sister and me in creative and artistic pursuits since we were children. My father, Manick Sorcar, put us in his animated movies and stage productions around the world. This helped educate me about the design considerations in such media. I studied technology-related subjects in my undergraduate years, and combined it with design and education in my graduate work.”

She adds, “Growing up, my parents emphasised the importance of education and using it as a tool to improve social welfare. As a research scientist at Stanford, I became passionate about establishing India as a model for educational innovation. Through conversations with government officials, NGOs and celebrities throughout India, I realised that we had the opportunity to build a broad-based coalition of support to educate the country about HIV in a way that could serve as a model for the rest of the world. Today, I am glad that we were able to do that on a massive scale, with hundreds of people throughout India and worldwide offering their assistance to help make TeachAIDS successful.”

More than 70 candidates across a wide range of education sectors (districts, non-profits, tech, academia or research) have been nominated for the award. Each nomination is evaluated by a committee of seven GSE faculty, nine alumni and dean of the GSE. The awards will be presented on October 20, 2016, at the university in US.